Have You Seen the Light?

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.’ (John 8:12 NKJV)

I love the song that rightly extols, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Jesus in making this statement in John 8 was promoting that people imitate His life. He wants you and me to live in holiness as He did.

The reward for doing so will surely be seen in heaven, but it will also be seen here during our earthy pilgrimage. Those who follow Him will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.

Darkness refers to ignorance of the truth. The inability to see accurately the reality of one’s condition is another way to say the same thing. People outside of Christ are in darkness. They cannot see the Kingdom of God as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3.

However, those who are in Christ and follow Him have the light of the life. Living sacrificially like Christ will open your eyes wider and wider. What is important and what is crucial will become more certain, and what is unimportant will no longer consume your thoughts.

People are always asking, “How do you discern the Lord’s will for your life?” Unfortunately, this may be a testimony to one’s lack of holiness. I am not trying to be cruel for I will tell you I have asked the same question more than once in my pilgrimage.

The problem for most new believers is that they are tripped up with busyness. What is the most important thing for a believer to do? It seems like trust and obey would top the list.

My dear friend are you wandering through your Christian life being shoved one way and then another? Are you struggling to find sustained peace? Are you lacking the joy of salvation? If so, focus on imitating Christ. You will struggle and He will lead you to His word. You will struggle some more and He will lead you to His word. However, along the way your eyes will become focused on what is important in life, and you will no longer need to ask, “What is God’s will for me?”

I will leave you with a passage from Peter that confirms this point. Remember to concentrate on what’s important in life.

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, [you will be] neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-8 NKJV)